Re: [tlug] OSX BSD mail server

[Jonathan Q <jq@example.com>]

Dmytro Koval'ov (kov@example.com) wrote:

> You can replace it with postfix if you fill more comfortable with it (I 
> prefer sendmail myself). 

You might also want to take a look at Exim <URL:http://www.exim.org/>
which offers fully human-readable config files (Sendmail's may be ASCII,
but they aren't terribly readable :-) and powerful regex-based filtering.
Because of this filtering, Exim is very good at keeping out spam (note
that this requires an admin with the time to update the filters every day,
and using RBLs is also very helpful).

As far as a POP3 server goes, there are any number you can choose from.
Just do a search for POP3 on Freshmeat and choose one you like.

If you have lots of (reliable) disk available, IMAP is also an option,
because this gives students easy access to their mail from anywhere, 
and some of the best (and J-E capable) webmail systems currently only
support IMAP (if you have any interest in a webmail option).

IMAP used to be filled with too many security holes to make it worth deploying,
but it seems better now.  A consideration it does bring with it, however,
is reliability.  If you're doing IMAP, you should be backing up the
mail spool.  This can quickly get to require a high-capacity, high-speed
backup device such as DLT or VXA tape.  I would also seriously consider
running the IMAP spool on RAID 5 so that loss of a disk will not have
immediate and dire consequences.

Jonathan